Carny

In our ongoing attempt to shut down your brains with the sheer force of our content, we bring you yet more STUFF.

*Kim Deitch checks in with Part 3 of his memoir, this time covering the advent of television, some of his favorite programs, and a bit about music. If you aren’t reading this you are seriously missing out. Living legend, this guy.

*And Rob Clough delivers a thoughtful take on the work of Dave Kiersh.

On a personal note, kind readers, thanks to Tim (thanks meaning he once sold me the book for a buck) I have begun reading Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga in the order Moorcock arranged the stories a decade ago. I’m into it, people. I feel I might be going in deep on this one. The quantity of ideas and images he’s tossing out is pretty wonderful, as is the implicit meta-narrative of satire and the decline of the 20th century. I hit upon the stuff after years of reading it referenced by Moore, Simonson, etc. And it’s been a total treat. Reading it after my recent Moebius jag is also satisfying, as Moebius has a similarly fevered psychedelic imagination rooted in late 1960s counterculture and straight-up pulps.

Also: A no-prize to anyone who can actually describe what’s in (like “all drawings, no text” or “super long comic in French” or “a retelling of the Gospel of Mark”) the Moebius books Jog mentioned on Tuesday. Help us try to understand!

And, as we say, “elsewhere”:

-I am bummed that Tom Spurgeon is taking some time off from The Comics Reporter, but wish him a happy and relaxing time away from the world of the comics internet.

-Craig Fischer has an excellent piece up at The Panelists about his own shifting views of Gene Colan’s artwork.

HiLobrow is running a five-part series by Rob Steibel (who writes the Kirby Dynamics blog for the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center). The series takes a close look at the original artwork — and the margin notes by Kirby and Lee — from a single June 1967 Fantastic Four page. It’s a lot of fun to read these panels over Rob’s shoulder, and to compare them with the published panels. This exercise offers deep insights into the Kirby-Lee collaboration, and Rob is scrupulously fair to both parties.

If you’re enjoying the Elric novels, you may like the prequel he did with Simonson (Elric: Making of a Sorcerer), which also reminded me of the work by Moebius and others as seen in late-1970’s issues of Heavy Metal. Also: I wish someone would reprint his collaboration with Chaykin (Swords of Heaven, Flowers of Hell).

(Regarding the novels, the ones written after “Stormbringer” aren’t as good as the early work, just a warning.)

If you like Elric I strongly recommend moving on to some more of the Eternal champion stuff. It’s way trippy, Moore/Morrisonian cosmic hippie. I am esp fond of The Dancers At The End Of Time, or at least I was when I was a sensitive adolescent. Una Persson!

The current Del Rey editions reprint the stories in the order in which Moorcock wrote them, which I believe makes the most sense.

Of course, the best time to read these works for the first time is when you’re a teenager. As a superhero comics fan, I found a lot to enjoy in the Eternal Champion novels, with their multiverse-spanning tales, tragic heroes, and even the occasional crossover. (Don’t mean to imply that Moorcock’s work can’t be enjoyed by adults, though. His “Mother London” and the first two or three Colonel Pyat novels are outstanding.)